Review InstaBox

Instabox for Android is a quick little app for creating collages, masking your photos with various shapes, applying filters, and doing cool mirror effects. When you’re done, you can share them in various ways. Probably the idea is that you share them via Instagram, given this app’s name and logo.

The collages are straightforward and boxy compared to other apps. You can quickly find a layout that works for your photos, but you can’t drag around the edges. You can make all the photos in your collage more or less round, with a slider. I found the mirror effects to be quite cool, although I’m not sure I would actually use it for sharing photos. And the shapes.. well, I’ve never really understood the appeal of masking your photos with different shapes. I works to make a nicely framed round photo, but apart from that, I’ve never seen that much call for it. But there are plenty to chose from.

Then there’s a bit of a weird section called “size”. Here you can put your photo against a background, zoom and rotate it, make the corners round… and also apply filters to it and change the background color or pattern. There are some nice patterns to choose from (also available for collages). This section is all well and good, I’m just not sure why it’s called “size”. It would be more complete with the ability to add text and stickers.

Overall, Instabox scores points for being quick and painless to use. I could well keep this around just to be a very quick way of making a collage. But the filters should probably have their own section, so that the UI makes a bit more sense.